


Their New Hope

by freckleface94



Series: Happily Ever After [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Babies, Ben thinks back on his childhood, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, Reylo babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 14:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22237678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckleface94/pseuds/freckleface94
Summary: A sense of time eluded Ben these past few weeks. Ever since Rey had given birth to their son, days and nights smashed together in a whirling blur of crying, changing, feeding, and sleeping whenever possible.He loved every single second.Never before had Ben known love like this. He didn’t think his heart could grow any more than it had after that day Rey told him that she wanted to take his hand, but the little face looking up at him proved him wrong.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Leia Organa/Han Solo, Rey/Ben Solo
Series: Happily Ever After [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1598665
Comments: 5
Kudos: 103





	Their New Hope

A sense of time eluded Ben these past few weeks. Ever since Rey gave birth to their son, days and nights smashed together in a whirling blur of crying, changing, feeding, and sleeping whenever possible. 

He loved every single second. 

Never before had Ben known love like this. He didn’t think his heart could grow any more than it had after that day Rey told him that she wanted to take his hand, but the little face looking up at him proved him wrong. 

Nova Solo came into the world as peacefully as a baby possibly could. Rey’s labor was relatively quick and straightforward. Their friends remarked that the baby must have known about all the pain Rey had already experienced and wanted to make things easier on her. While it seemed crazy, Ben didn’t doubt the theory for a minute given that Nova seemed to possess entirely too much wisdom in his eyes than any newborn had the right to. 

Before Rey even became pregnant, they knew they weren’t going to give their children any legacy names. Ben knew all too well what it was like to feel like he had to measure up to a namesake. When Rey found “Nova” on a list of baby names on her Holopad, she immediately took a liking to it, especially once she found out it meant “new”. It didn't take any convincing for Ben to agree to the name. 

Ben squinted to look outside and noticed it was still pitch black. As soon as he’d heard Nova start to stir in his bassinet, he had jumped out of bed and walked over to the baby before he woke Rey up. Ben was used to subsisting on little sleep and he was still in awe of his wife for growing and giving birth to their son, so he tried to do as much at night as he could. He cradled Nova in his arms and smiled at how small the infant was in his large arms. The baby drank happily from a bottle and Ben could feel their mutual happiness through the Force. 

_I hope you know that you can always tell me when you don't feel this happy. I don't want you to ever feel like you have to keep anything from me._

Friends with older children had hounded Ben and Rey throughout her pregnancy about how difficult newborns were. They could kiss sleeping, intimacy, and sanity goodbye, everyone had said. Ben had politely nodded along and Rey would laugh and make some kind of joke back, but the first few years of his son’s life weren’t what concerned him. He found himself thinking more about his own childhood than ever before and desperately wanted to prevent Nova from feeling as isolated as he had growing up. And of course, he was  _ not  _ going to let anyone corrupt him the way Snoke had.

Many times over the years Ben had thought that his parents shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place. There was no denying their intense chemistry, particularly when it came to their physical relationship, but when it came to living a life together as partners outside of war, they weren’t particularly compatible. His mother was outspoken and used to being in charge. His father was hotheaded and used to doing things his own way. Ben used to hear his parents’ friends laughing about what a strong personality any son of Leia Organa and Han Solo would have.

In reality, Ben had been a rather quiet child who mostly kept to himself. Something told him that there was  _ enough _ personality in his home and so he should just try and make things easy for everyone else. He never resented his parents for having jobs and interests outside of the home, but he did feel that he wasn’t always as much of a priority as he should be. Ben learned early on to be self sufficient. In retrospect, this probably fed his parents’ ideas that he didn’t need as much hand-holding as other children. He was brilliant as a boy, reading any book he could get his hands on and reciting all the facts he’d learned with remarkable accuracy. While other children were outside playing, Ben was diligently practicing his calligraphy. He’d been teased about it, given the fact that no one actually needed to write anything by hand anymore. What really appealed to Ben, was the idea that he could make anything better as long as he worked hard at it. 

Ben had been aware at a young age of his parents’ attractiveness. It had made him proud to see them together until the taunts started. The other children at school would mock him by saying that his mother must have had an affair with any number of non-human species because how could any child of Leia Organa and Han Solo look like  _ that _ ? Ben had a face that required growing into, and even now he knew that his face wasn’t necessarily to everyone’s tastes. Rey would tell him over and over again how beautiful she found him, but he still hoped that Nova would take after her. 

Of course his Force sensitivity had also been there all along. The older he got, the more frequently he would hear his parents arguing about him.

“He needs to learn how to control it, Han! He’s already so strong,” Leia would say.

“He’s just a kid for Kriff’s sake,” Han would retort, “We just need to let him be.”

“What if he can't get a hold on his darkness? What if he ends up like my  _ father?” _

At any mention of Ben’s grandfather, Han would storm out of the room, furious at the idea that his sweet-natured, studious son who idolized him and wanted nothing more than to become a pilot would have anything in common with Darth Vader. Han thought the notion of his son having to “train” for anything when they lived in a time of peace was absurd. He would argue with Leia about the fact that neither of them were allowed to have carefree childhoods and that they should want better for their child, but she would say that it was foolish to think that the galaxy would remain so unperturbed. 

Ben shook his head and focused on the small boy in front of him. 

_ None of that is ever going to happen to you. There will never be any debate about whether or not you get to choose how you want to live your life.  _

Nova finished his bottle and Ben draped a small muslin over his shoulder before bringing the baby up to burp. Afterwards he kept his son close, hugging him as tightly as he safely could. He stayed in the chair in the living room, rocking Nova until he fell back asleep. With light steps, he walked back to the bedroom and placed the baby back in the bassinet before climbing back into his own bed. Ben turned on his side to face Rey’s back and draped a long arm across her body, pulling himself as close to her as he could. He moved her hair off her neck and pressed a small kiss there, silently thanking her for all that she had given him. Thinking about how wonderful his life was now it ultimately was hard not to feel hopeful about the future, in spite of everything that had come before. 

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't *not* name it this.
> 
> Ben thinking back on his own childhood was the catalyst for this series and will be the most angsty part. I promise there will be more pure fluff and some smut in future installments!


End file.
